Daniel: Most people think the first step to wealth is earning more money. What if the real first step is asking yourself what a vada-pav and a soft drink mean to you? It sounds absurd, but it might be the most important financial question you ever answer. Sophia: Okay, you have my attention. A vada-pav? The fried potato dumpling sandwich? What on earth does that have to do with wealth? That sounds more like a recipe for a good afternoon nap than a financial plan. Daniel: I know, it sounds completely out of left field. But it’s at the heart of the book we’re diving into today: 13 Steps to Bloody Good Wealth by Ashwin Sanghi and Sunil Dalal. Sophia: Right, and this book has a fascinating origin. It’s a collaboration between a bestselling thriller writer, Sanghi, and his childhood friend, Dalal, a serial entrepreneur. The idea was to take real-world, practical wealth advice and wrap it in compelling stories, making it accessible for everyone, not just finance pros. Daniel: Exactly. And that's where their first, and maybe most profound, step comes in: you have to define what wealth actually means to you. That’s where the vada-pav comes in.

Sophia: I’m still stuck on the snack food, Daniel. Unpack this for me. How does a simple street food snack become a lesson in high finance? Daniel: Well, one of the authors tells this wonderful personal story. Back in his college days, he and his friends had very little money. For them, pooling their cash to buy a vada-pav and a soft drink at a local restaurant was a huge treat. It was an event. It felt like the peak of luxury and happiness. Sophia: Oh, I can totally relate to that. My version was saving up for a movie ticket and a large popcorn. It felt like I was living like a queen for two hours. Daniel: Precisely. But here's the punchline. The author says that today, he could buy that entire restaurant, let alone the snack. But the vada-pav and soft drink no longer give him that same thrill. The joy, the feeling of wealth he got from it, has vanished. His definition of a treat, of what feels valuable, has changed. Sophia: Huh. So the argument is that wealth is a feeling, an experience, not just a thing you can buy. It’s a moving target. Daniel: It’s a completely moving target. The book shares another story about a dinner party where the host asks everyone, "What does wealth mean to you?" At first, people give stilted, predictable answers. But as the night goes on, the real definitions come out. One person says it's about experiences. Another says it's knowledge. A third says it's having a healthy family. Almost no one says, "a billion dollars." Sophia: That's a nice sentiment, but let's be real. In the actual world, isn't wealth just about having enough money to not worry? Is this just a way to make people feel better about not having a massive bank account? Some critics of the book did say it recycles some familiar self-help ideas. Daniel: That's a fair challenge, and it's one the book anticipates. You'd think more money automatically equals feeling wealthy, but the data says otherwise. The authors cite a UBS survey of people with assets between one and five million dollars. These are, by any objective measure, millionaires. Sophia: And they all felt rich and happy, right? Daniel: Not even close. Only 28% of them considered themselves wealthy. The majority still felt financially insecure, worried about unexpected expenses, or felt like they were just keeping their heads above water. This proves the book's point: the number in your account doesn't create the feeling of wealth. Your definition of "enough" does. Sophia: Wow. So you can be a millionaire and still feel like you're struggling. That’s a terrifying thought, actually. It’s like a psychological prison. Daniel: It’s the ultimate treadmill. And the book offers a powerful antidote to that prison by showcasing people who have immense wealth but define their lives differently. The best example is Warren Buffett. Sophia: Ah, the Oracle of Omaha. I assume he’s living in a gold-plated palace with diamond faucets. Daniel: You would think! But the book reminds us he still lives in the same house he bought in Omaha in 1958 for $31,500. He drives a modest car, drinks cherry Coke, and eats McDonald's. His annual salary for decades was just $100,000. Sophia: That’s just wild. He’s one of the richest men on the planet, and he lives like a middle-manager from the 1980s. Daniel: And he has this fantastic quote: "Your standard of living is not equal to your cost of living." He found his "enough" level decades ago. Everything beyond that is just a number on a scoreboard. He’s not on the treadmill. He’s free. And that, according to this book, is the first and most crucial step to true wealth: defining your own freedom, your own "enough." Sophia: That makes sense. If you don't know what game you're playing, you can't win. You just keep running. Daniel: Exactly. And once you know what you're aiming for, the book says you have to understand the two invisible forces that will either get you there or stop you dead in your tracks: inflation and compounding.

Sophia: Okay, "invisible forces" sounds a bit dramatic. We all know prices go up. Is inflation really that big of a deal? Daniel: It’s a bigger deal than most of us realize because it's a silent killer of wealth. The book uses another great, relatable story. The author is at his high school reunion, and everyone is reminiscing about how cheap things used to be. Sophia: Oh, I've had that exact conversation. "Remember when you could get a coffee for a dollar?" That kind of thing. Daniel: That's the one. They talk about two-rupee Cokes and twenty-five paise snacks. Then he remembers his grandfather talking about how cheap samosas were in 1947, and his father talking about apartment prices in the 1960s. We see it as nostalgia, but the book frames it for what it is: the relentless, crushing power of inflation. The economist Milton Friedman had a great line for it: "Inflation is taxation without legislation." Sophia: That’s a powerful way to put it. It’s like a hidden tax that the government doesn't even have to announce. But okay, the nostalgia is relatable, but how bad is it really? Give me an example that hits the wallet. Daniel: The book gives a perfect, modern example: the cost of an MBA in India. Fifteen years ago, a top-tier MBA cost about three lakh rupees. The average starting salary for a graduate was five lakhs. A pretty good return. Sophia: Seems reasonable. What about now? Daniel: Today, that same MBA costs twenty-five lakhs. The cost has gone up more than eight times. But the average starting salary? It's only gone up four times, to about twenty lakhs. The cost of the education has outpaced the financial reward. If you just saved cash in a drawer for your child's education, you would have fallen desperately behind. Sophia: Whoa. So your money is literally losing its power, its ability to buy the things you want for your future, every single day you do nothing with it. Daniel: Every single day. Your savings are on a melting ice floe. But here’s the good news. The book says there's an equally powerful force working in the other direction, if you choose to use it. It's the antidote to inflation: compounding. Sophia: The magic of compound interest. I've heard about it, but it always sounds a bit like a "get-rich-quick" fantasy. Daniel: It feels like a fantasy, but it’s just math. And the book tells the most famous story to illustrate it, the legend of the grains on a chessboard. Sophia: I think I remember this one from school. A king and a poet? Daniel: That's it. A king is so pleased with a poet's work that he offers him any reward. The poet, seeming humble, makes a simple request. He asks for one grain of rice on the first square of a chessboard, two grains on the second, four on the third, eight on the fourth, and so on, just doubling the grains for each of the 64 squares. Sophia: And the king, of course, laughs and says, "Sure, no problem." He thinks he's getting off easy. Daniel: He thinks it's a pittance. But then his treasurers start calculating. By the time they get to the 20th square, it's over 500,000 grains. By the 30th, it's over 500 million. By the end of the first half of the board, the 32nd square, it’s over two billion grains of rice. Sophia: And that’s only halfway through the board. What happens on the 64th square? Daniel: The numbers become astronomical, almost incomprehensible. The total amount of rice for all 64 squares would be over 18 quintillion grains. That’s a pile of rice larger than Mount Everest. It's more rice than has ever been produced in the history of the world. The king was, of course, bankrupted by his promise. Sophia: That is absolutely mind-bending. And that's what happens with money when you invest it and let it compound? Daniel: That's the principle. Your money earns a return, and then that return starts earning its own return. It’s a slow, boring process at first. One grain becomes two, two becomes four. You barely notice it. But over decades, the doubling effect creates that Mount Everest of wealth. Sophia: Okay, I see. So inflation is this constant headwind, slowly pushing you back. And compounding is like a massive tailwind. You absolutely need that tailwind just to stay in the same place, and even more to move forward. Daniel: That's the perfect analogy. If your investments are earning 7% but inflation is 8%, like it was in the period the book analyzed for some asset classes, you are losing. You have more money, more "slices of pizza" as the book jokes, but the pizza itself is smaller. You need to harness compounding to generate returns that are significantly higher than inflation to actually grow your wealth.

Sophia: It's fascinating how the book boils down such a huge, intimidating topic into these two core ideas. It’s not about stock tips or crypto. It’s about philosophy and physics, in a way. Daniel: I think that’s the genius of the collaboration. Dalal brings the hard-won entrepreneurial wisdom, and Sanghi, the master storyteller, makes it resonate. And that's the beautiful simplicity of this book. It argues that wealth isn't about chasing hot stocks or complex schemes. It's about a fundamental mindset shift. Sophia: What’s the shift? Daniel: First, defining your own 'finish line'—your personal definition of wealth—so you're not on a psychological treadmill forever, chasing a number that will never make you happy. And second, respecting these two powerful, simple forces. One, inflation, will eat your future if you ignore it. The other, compounding, will build it for you if you let it. Sophia: It really makes you think. We spend so much time focused on our salary, our 'nominal' income. But the book forces you to ask: what is my real return on life, after inflation and my own definition of happiness are factored in? Daniel: It's a powerful question. And it’s one that moves the conversation about money from a place of anxiety to a place of empowerment. You stop asking "How can I get more?" and start asking "What is enough for me, and how can I protect and grow what I have?" Sophia: That feels like a much healthier, and frankly, more achievable goal for most people. Daniel: It is. And it’s a journey that starts not with a spreadsheet, but with a simple question about what truly matters to you. Sophia: We'd love to hear what 'wealth' means to you. Find us on our socials and share your definition. Does it involve a vada-pav, a European holiday, or something else entirely? Daniel: The answers are always so personal and insightful. We look forward to reading them. Sophia: This is Aibrary, signing off.